Cockpit draft / air leakage control

My first winter approaches in the new RV. I've been getting a fair bit of air movement inside the cockpit and what was pleasant in the summer months was becoming uncomfortable as the air temperature dropped.

Time to take some draft exclusion measures then......

If i'd started with drafts that equal "10"

- Fitted aileron push tube seals = 6
- Sealed around penetrations for pitot and wiring fuz to cabin = 5
- Sealed around rear edge of canopy slider to fuz = 5 (no change)
- Sealed edges of cabin floor to fuz sides = 5 (no change)

I was getting fed up, so had a really close look and decided to fit the seals in the photos attached and also seal the main wing spar penetration hole with some gaffer tape at the same time.

Difference was dramatic to say the least - I'd say not even a "1" on the above scale now. The only detectable air movement now is a little leakage from the cabin air vents. I'm Happy - Wifey's delighted !

I'm convinced that the real winner here was the seals on the canopy side skirts. They are domestic door "brush" seals that have been fitted under the slider canopy rails. I cut the brush to stand 1/8" above the fuz side and they seal perfectly with very little drag on the canopy action.

[/url]IMG_1727 by WIGY TV, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]IMG_1723 by WIGY TV, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]IMG_1729 by WIGY TV, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]IMG_1722 by WIGY TV, on Flickr[/IMG]

Drafts

As owner of a drafty RV-8 I'd love to see the pics, but they didn't come through on my MacBook Thanks for posting!

HI Bill - sorry, I always seem to struggle to get photos to show here.

Lets try this ....


[/url]IMG_1727 by WIGY TV, on Flickr[/IMG]

So, it looks like you took the rails off and put them under the rails. Hard to understand from the pics. Do you have a source or part number for the seals?
Al

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Pat Hatch has a great solution in this thread that couldn't be easier...

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=104766&highlight=Slider+canopy+seal

I used it on my slider, I also plugged the holes around the spar. I haven't bothered with boots around the aileron tubes as I already fly in shorts at 30 degrees.

algrajek said:

So, it looks like you took the rails off and put them under the rails. Hard to understand from the pics. Do you have a source or part number for the seals?
Al

Click to expand...

The "Seals" were simple domestic door bottom brush seals off ebay here's an example

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Door-Bott...hash=item35c01a7c86:m:mIBThTx2wbZYCoTOYvScEig

I trapped the seal strip between the slider rail and Fuz deck. On my RV the slider rails have been spaced upwards a little after the 1st 6" behind the front rollover bar.

This is so that the canopy rises 1/8" for the side skirts to clear the fuz deck as it slides open but then lowers just before it gets to the closed position. Because of this the brush seals fitted easily into the gap with a little trimming at the very front where the gap narrows.

I'd seen the "flap seal" method as well, just could not resist giving this a try as I think it looks very neat and durable.

One final comment - It's very tricky to cut the brush seals. In the end the best method I came up with was to gaffer tape both sides of the brush, cut with a scalpel then peel the remaining tape off.